Is that room big enough to let?
Measure each bedroom and get a verdict against the mandatory HMO licence conditions, with the regulation cited beside it. England has national minimums; Wales does not, and we will not pretend otherwise.
The two are genuinely different here, which is why we ask first. England has a national minimum room size; Wales has none.
Questions people ask
What is the minimum bedroom size in an HMO in England?
6.51 square metres for one person aged over 10, 10.22 for two persons aged over 10, and 4.64 for one person aged under 10. A room below 4.64 square metres cannot be used as sleeping accommodation at all. These are mandatory conditions of every HMO licence in England, in force since 1 October 2018 under the Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation (Mandatory Conditions of Licences) (England) Regulations 2018.
What is the minimum room size for an HMO in Wales?
There is none. Wales prescribes amenity standards nationally — heating, washing facilities by ratio, hot and cold water, kitchen provision — in Schedule 3 to the 2006 Wales Regulations, but no floor area. The England figures sit in paragraphs 1A to 1C of Schedule 4 to the Housing Act 2004, which are marked England only. In Wales the size is set by the licensing council under sections 65(2) and 67 of the Housing Act 2004, so this tool gives no square-metre verdict for a Welsh property.
Does a sloping ceiling count towards the floor area?
No. Any part of the room where the ceiling is under 1.5 metres is disregarded — paragraph 1A(2). This is what catches attic and dormer rooms: a loft measuring 8 square metres on the floor plan can fall below the 6.51 minimum once the sloping sections come out. Enter the countable area, not the plan figure.
What size must a room be for one adult and one child sharing?
The regulations do not say. Paragraph 1A prescribes three cases — one person over 10, two persons over 10, one person under 10 — and a room shared by one over-10 and one under-10 is not one of them. Adding 6.51 and 4.64 together produces a figure that appears in no instrument, so we will not show one. What does apply is the 4.64 absolute floor, and your licence must state the maximum number who may sleep in each room by age band.
Do these minimums apply if my HMO is not licensed?
They are conditions of a licence, so they bind licensed HMOs. That is a narrower thing than a building standard, and it is why the tool says so beside every verdict. A property that should be licensed and is not is a separate and more serious problem, and overcrowding and HHSRS powers apply to any property regardless.
Can my council require larger rooms than the national minimum?
Yes, and many do. The 2018 figures are a floor, not a standard. Councils commonly attach higher room sizes and their own amenity ratios as licence conditions, and they vary genuinely between authorities. The difference between a 6.51 minimum and a local 10 square metre condition is the difference between a six-bed HMO and a four-bed one.
The detail behind the figures is in HMO room sizes in England and HMO amenity and space standards in Wales. For what a licence costs, see the licence fee lookup.
Information tool, not legal advice.